Doesn’t everyone just love getting the franchise tag placed on them? Well, that window opened tomorrow, and that marks pretty much the unofficial start to the 2025 football offseason.
Although it really does not start until March 12, at 3 P.M CT. Meaning any negotiated contracts or trades can be finalized and processed. Any free agent or trade discussions that begin after this point can be finalized immediately.
Jones Gives A Update
With that said, over the weekend we got some clarity of what and who the front office of the Dallas Cowboys may use it on, I am sure you can guess who that may be on the defensive side of the ball.
As of Sunday, the Cowboys have started negotiations with free agent defensive tackle Osa Odighizuwa.
Odighizuwa is scheduled to become a free agent next month.
He had a career-high 4.5 sacks and 23 quarterback hits and will have a lot of teams call his agent!
“We have had negotiations with Osa,‘’ Jones told the Dallas Morning News. “I just think Osa is a really good football player. He’s an important piece.‘’
Now although he did not rule out using the tag on him, it seems very unlikely!
It would cost them $23.4 million for 2025, but the transition tag is a more palatable $18.9 million.
“It’s a tool,‘’ Jones said. “It’s something we haven’t ruled out using. We’ll just see how this week goes and how our visits [with his agent] go.‘’
A Lot Of Work Ahead
With 22 players in Dallas set to hit free agency, and the Cowboys realistically will have to let some of them walk, they just can’t bring all of them back.
Guys like Rico Dowdle, Jourdan Lewis, DeMarcus Lawrence, Chauncey Golston and Eric Kendricks are just a few of the names that he may not see back at the Star in 2025.
Let’s also not forget Parsons is expected to command between $35 million and $40 million in his new deal, becoming the highest-paid non-QB in the league.
Dak Prescott enters this offseason with the biggest average salary in NFL history, clocking in at $60 million per season, while CeeDee Lamb is the second-highest paid WR of all time, at $34 million a season.
This offseason is going to filled with flips and turns, the only decently good news that the Dallas Cowboys have gotten lately is that of the salary cap increase.
Last week, the NFL informed teams that the 2025 salary cap will be between $277.5 million to $281.5 million, well ahead of last year’s figure of $255.4 million.
That should allow Dallas to at least think about doing something about all these pending free agents and maybe look to bring in a guy so they don’t have to hope a late-round pick hits this season.
Back to the main man of this post, Osa, he will be needed for Matt Eberflus running this defense.
If some of you don’t know yet, you may be asking yourself, you know what is the biggest difference between an Eberflus and a Mike Zimmer defense?
Traditionally, Eberflus plays more of a zone defense on the back end, and he can do that better if he’s getting pressure up front. When he went to the Colts, they had a Top 10 defense his first year and then went 11th the next year.
I hope they don’t play around and think they can just draft some rookie and hope he does the job well enough, because look at how bad Mazi Smith has been.
Talk is cheap and me going on and on won’t help the problem. Jones and the front office need to show us they at least want to try and win some games.